The first benchmarks for the MacBook Air 2011 refresh (released alongside Lion) are rolling in, and they show that the Intel Core i5 processor in both the 13″ and 11″ variation are screamers. How fast? Well, just check out the Geekbench scores, which for both models are at least double the speed of the 2010 Core 2 Duo’s they replaced. In fact, the new MacBook Air’s are so fast that the speed of the new 1.7GHz Core i5 13″ model is faster than the 2010 MacBook Pro 17″ that was a 2.6GHz Core i7, as ElectricPig says:

To put these benchmarks into perspective, the 2010 17-inch 2.67 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pro scored 5423. For [$999] the 11-inch MacBook Air offers a benchmark on par with last year’s [$2499] 17-inch MacBook Pro.

Undoubtedly some of the speed increase is due to the ultrafast SSD, but it also shows the new Intel Core i5 contained within the 2011 MBA refresh is a screamer.
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First a quick note: if you’re a developer who is running the Lion GM build 11A511 there is technically no need to install the Lion Final, both builds are 11A511 and identical. That said…

If you are running the Mac OS X Lion GM build and you want to buy and install the Final release of Lion through the Mac App Store, you’ve probably noticed that you’ll get an error message in the App Store. The solution? Simple, you just need to hold Option and click on the Install button to be able to install the final release over GM. You can also do this through the “Purchases” tab in the Mac App Store, just hold down Option to enable the “Install” button.

This is also a way for those who inappropriately downloaded Lion GM to ‘come clean’ and pay Apple for the final release. It’s only $29.99, and if you haven’t bought it yet, you really should.

Again, there isn’t much reason for developers to do this, but it’s a good tip anyway from The Loop.

Update: Some users are reporting sporadic issues with this, here is a clarification from our comments:

To clarify for everyone:

Hold option/alt when clicking the App Store icon.

Keep option/alt held down, and navigate to OS X Lion in the App Store.

Keeping alt/option held, you will see OS X Lion is now available for purchase, instead of being marked as ‘installed’.

Click it!

Basically, hold option during App Store launch and during each click through to “Purchases” and then to “Install”

Unless you live under a rock, you probably know that OS X Lion is available to download on the Mac App Store. We’ve been covering Lion for a while now (check out all of our posts on OS X Lion for a ton of tips and relevant information) and we think it’s awesome, but if you’re the type to want reviews before diving in yourself, here’s a handful of the best out there:

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The final version of Xcode 4.1 has been released as a free download to everyone via the Mac App Store. Mostly for developers, Xcode is the Mac OS X-only development environment for creating OS X and iOS apps, but the package also includes various useful command line tools, and even an iOS hardware simulator, making it a worthwhile download for power users as well as developers.

Before you get the latest version of Xcode though, you will need to download Mac OS X Lion and complete that installation.

Get XCode 4.1 free from the Mac App Store

Here are the key changes for XCode 4.1 with Lion support, via the App Store page:

What’s new in Xcode 4.1 for OS X Lion
– Includes SDKs for OS X Lion and iOS 4.3
– Interface Builder support for Auto Layout and new Aqua controls such as NSPopover
– Full screen support in workspace, project, and organizer windows
– Project modernization to identify and resolve out of date build settings
– Behaviors can be customized and assigned to unique key bindings
– Source control enhancements to pushing, pulling, and management of remote servers
– Assistant editor support for display of generated assembly and preprocessed output
– Additional bug fixes and stability improvements

Prior to this release, Xcode cost $4.99 to download.

Alongside the release of Mac OS X Lion, Apple has pushed out iTunes 10.4. The changes are geared mostly towards Lion compatibility, with 64-bit architecture and Full-Screen app support.

Download iTunes 10.4

We will post direct links from Apple when they become available, for now there are two options:

• Open “Software Update” from the  Apple menu or update within iTunes
• Download from Apple.com’s iTunes page

Here are the release notes via Software Update:
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The wait is over, Mac OS X Lion is live and available now on the Mac App Store, ready for everyone to download! The file weighs in at 3.49GB and speeds are so far very quick this morning.

Get OS X Lion from the Mac App Store Now – $29.99

Basic requirements are a Mac that is a Core 2 Duo or better with 2GB of RAM or more, but you can review the full Lion system requirements if you want. If you haven’t backed up already, do that too. Enjoy!

Mac OS X Lion is available now and many of us will be upgrading immediately, while others will be waiting. Regardless of when you decide to upgrade to OS X 10.7, you’ll want to update your existing Mac OS X installation, check app compatibility, and backup your data.

Recommended Steps for Upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Before anything else, verify that your Mac meets the OS X Lion system requirements, which in brief are a Core 2 Duo or higher processor and at least 2GB of RAM.

1) Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.6.8 and get the Mac App Store

You won’t be able to upgrade an existing Mac to Lion without having access to the Mac App Store and 10.6.8:

• Run Software Update and be updated to Mac OS X 10.6.8 including the Mac App Store
• Optional: Run Software Update again and get the latest “Migration Assistant” download if you plan to transfer data from a 10.6 Snow Leopard Mac to another Lion equipped Mac

2) Check for App Compatibility and Update Apps

You’ll want to make sure that Lion supports the apps you are dependent on. Most apps should be updated by their developers to support Lion, but you can also quickly check for incompatible apps by looking at System Profiler to identify any PowerPC applications – these won’t work.

3) Backup your Mac and Data

The likelihood of something going wrong during the upgrade is slim, but that’s not the point, you need to backup your data. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

There are a few different approaches to data backups, the easiest method is to just use Time Machine and let it run a full backup. You can force Time Machine to perform a backup manually just by right-clicking on the Time Machine drive and selecting “Backup Now”.

Alternatively, you can use a modernized approach to Gruber’s 4-step method:

1. Do a complete backup of your existing hard drive by cloning it to an external hard drive, using something like the free tool Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper
2. Test that the backup is bootable and contains all files as expected
3. Disconnect the backup drive
4. Proceed to install Mac OS X Lion

4) Install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

Got your data backed up? Good. Installing OS X Lion is very easy, in fact it’s probably the easiest major Mac OS X upgrade ever. All you need to do is download it from the Mac App Store and launch the installer.

Download Mac OS X Lion from the Mac App Store

This will update your existing 10.6.8 installation to 10.7 and takes about 20 to 40 minutes after it has been downloaded, depending on the speed of your hard drive.

If you want to perform a clean install, or you plan on installing Lion on multiple Macs around your house, the easiest way is to just make an OS X Lion installer USB drive or boot DVD. Both methods allow you to do a fresh installation and save you the hassle of downloading the 4GB again on each Mac.

Update: Lion is now available, you can download it now from the Mac App Store for $29.99

Apple has confirmed that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will launch today, July 20. This was announced today during the Apple Q3 2011 earnings call by Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer, and later reaffirmed by COO Tim Cook.

This confirms at least half of the recent rumor about a Wednesday launch, but it remains to be seen whether a new MacBook Air will be launched alongside Lion as well, or later in the month.

Mac OS X Lion will cost $29.99 and be available exclusively as a digital download through the Mac App Store. You can read more of our Lion coverage here.

Apple has posted some ludicrously huge numbers for their Q3 2011, with quarterly revenue reaching $28.7 billion and a net profit of $7.31 billion, both new records. By comparison, 2010’s Q3 was $15.7 billion in revenue with a profit of $3.25 billion.

Apple’s Q3 2011 Highlights:

• Revenue increased 82% year over year
• Profits increased 125% year over year
• Gross margin was 41.7% compared to 39.1% in the year-ago quarter
• Retail revenue increased 36% year over year
• International sales accounted for 62% of the quarters revenue
• Americas revenue grew 63% year over year
• Europe revenue grew 71% year over year
• Japan revenue grew 66% year over year
• Asia Pacific revenue exploded 247% year over year

Hardware Numbers:

• iPhones sold: 20.34 million, a 142% increase year over year
• iPads sold: 9.25 million, a 183% increase year over year
• Macs sold: 3.95 million, a 14% increase year over year
• iPods sold: 7.54 million, a 20% decline year over year

Two choice quotes included in Apple’s Third Quarter results, published online, include one from CEO Steve Jobs, and another from CFO Peter Oppenheimer:

“We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”

“We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50.”

This information comes directly from Apple PR. You can listen live to the Q3 2011 conference call starting at 2PM today at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq311.

If the prospect of installing Mac OS X Lion isn’t your thing, you can try running Chromium OS on the MacBook Air instead. Chromium OS is the open-source version of Google’s Chrome OS, which is an operating system based almost entirely around the Chrome browser – you boot directly into a browser, and that’s basically it.

All hardware works with the exception of Bluetooth, but all the brightness, sound, trackpad, WiFi, and it is said to install on both the MacBook Air 11″ and 13″ models, and possibly even nVidia based MacBook and MacBook Pro’s. The major caveat? You lose OS X, so don’t expect to dual boot here.

We haven’t tested this ourselves and you’ll want to be sure you backup Mac OS X before proceeding because it’ll be overwritten. If you’re brave enough to give this a try, you’ll need a compatible MacBook Air, a 2GB+ USB stick, and the Mac OS X USB Installer key that comes with the MacBook Air.

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Your Mac will automatically restart itself if it freezes, thanks to a new feature in OS X Mountain Lion and Mac OS X Lion. Tucked away in “Energy Saver”, the auto-restart ability is an option that can be disabled if for whatever reason you don’t want your Mac to basically fix itself in the event of a disaster.

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If manually deleting specific apps saved Resume states is too tedious for you, you can always choose to just disable the Resume and App Restore feature completely in Mac OS X 10.7.

• Launch System Preferences and click on the “General” icon
• At the bottom of the “Number of recent items” list, uncheck the checkbox next to “Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps”

This is a sweeping change that impacts all applications and the Finder itself, meaning all apps will no longer save their previous state, including when you reboot your Mac.

Considering that Resumes is genuinely useful, plus it’s one of the snazzier new features that is heavily boasted about in OS X Lion, this should not be considered a recommended adjustment for everyone.

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In what is probably the best unintentional marketing campaign for the Incipio iPhone 4 case, an iPhone 4 has survived a fall from 13,500′ after slipping from the pocket of a skydiver.

Amazingly enough the iPhone, pictured above, survived the drop, despite landing on the roof of a building from the height of a plane. Despite suffering a broken enclosure and touchscreen, the phone continues to make and receives phone calls, and was able to be located by using the Find My iPhone feature. The aforementioned Incipio case didn’t make it out alive, but it sounds like it absorbed enough of the impact to let the phone continue to function.

This Pulitzer-quality important news event was reported by CNN.

Using the command line open tool, you can immediately launch any URL from the Terminal into the default web browser of Mac OS X. In other words, you’re launching the specified site into a GUI browser from the command line.

The syntax to open any URL into the default web browser like this is remarkably easy to use and remember:

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Update: Apple has confirmed the release date of Lion as July 20. MacBook Air ETA is yet to be determined.

Sick of 10.7 Lion and MacBook Air release date rumors yet? Us too, but as we enter into the second half of July we’re running short on time for OS X Lion to be released this month as expected. The good news is that when Apple sets a date, they almost always meet it (ignore the white iPhone 4), and the better news is AppleInsider says they have received word that Wednesday, July 20 at 8:30am ET is the magic time:

According to people with proven track records who would be in a position to know, the new product launches are set to occur later this week. Specifically, one person said the products would be released on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. Eastern.

A Wednesday release is slightly earlier than what WSJ’s AllThingsD reported last week, placing a “Thursday or Friday” timeline for the new hardware and software.

Refreshed MacBook Airs are said to include Intel Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 processors, 4GB of RAM standard, a starting storage capacity of 128GB SSD, and a return of everyones favorite backlit keyboard. It remains to be seen what GPU will be bundled with the refreshed MacBook Air, but most analysts expect it to be the Intel HD 3000 chip.

The same AI report says that Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was delayed slightly due to logistical issues with distribution through the Mac App Store, in addition to some unexpected problems with the Resumes feature. The GM build of Lion was released on July 1.

One of the new features in OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion is the “Resume” ability for all applications to save their last state, meaning when you relaunch the app or reboot your Mac, the application will “resume” and reopen again showing all of the windows and data that was last in use. This is a great feature for some apps and situations, but there are also times where you don’t want past app states to reappear.

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The recently released iOS 4.3.4 update has been jailbroken by a new version of redsn0w. Most iOS 4.3.4 devices are supported including the iPhone 4 GSM & CDMA, iPod touch 3rd and 4th gen, and iPad 1. For now, iPad 2 owners must stay on iOS 4.3.3 and continue to use JailbreakMe 3 as it is the only option for that hardware.

This is a somewhat typical Redsn0w jailbreak, with the main limitation being it is tethered only. Be sure you understand completely what a tethered jailbreak means and it’s limitations, but in short, anytime you reboot your iOS device it will have to be connected to a computer and booted with the assistance of the Redsn0w application.

Download Redsn0w 0.9.8b3

As usual, Mac and Windows versions are available:

• Download now (Mac)
• Download now (Windows)

The iPhone Dev Team suggests most users stay on iOS 4.3.3 so that they can continue with an untethered jailbreak. Remember, the only change in iOS 4.3.4 was the fix for the PDF hole that was utilized by jailbreakme 3, but that hole can be patched independently through Cydia or by upgrading iOS itself.

Other than the tether, the process of using this version of redsn0w remains the same as the prior version. If you need assistance, you can follow a walkthrough for 4.3.3.

Want to upgrade the memory on your new 2011 MacBook Pro for a great price? Amazon is offering an 8GB upgrade (2 X 4GB) DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit (1333MHz Unbuffered CL 9 SODIMM) for just $50 after a $10 mail-in rebate from Corsair. The kit installs on the most recent Core i5 and Core i7 series of MacBook Pros from 2011.

Corsair 8 GB DDR3 Laptop Memory Kit with free shipping on Amazon

The deal is still a very cheap $59.99 without the rebate, but why not save an extra $10 and mail it in? Here’s the rebate form (PDF).

The RAM comes with a lifetime warranty from Corsair, but after you install the upgrade don’t forget to run a RAM test to check for any problems or defects.